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Who is JB Bonds? For those of you who do not know us personally, I thought I would tell you a little about JB Bonds how “Rainbow’s End” began.

The “J” in JB Bonds, is Emily Jane Bonds McCoy and the “B” is Brenda Sue Bonds Rowell. Two sisters who grew up the valley of Roanoke, VA. We both married our high school sweethearts. We both worked as secretaries until we became stay at home moms. We both were very fortunate that our husbands had great careers that could support a single income family. We moved around the East cost with our husbands careers. Jane has a son and daughter and I have two daughters and a granddaughter.

We have always been very close sisters and have become best friends. We have always kept in touch with each other and our husbands are like brothers to each other. We have enjoyed many family vacations together and since we became empty nester’s, the four of us have gone on some great vacations together.

It was on one of these trips that the idea of our book, “Rainbow’s End” was born. The four of us went to Cudjoe Key, Fl, which is 23 miles North of Key West, Fl. We stayed at a retirement community called Venture Out. We rented a two bedroom home for a week in February 2012.

Jane and I were in the pool while our husbands were enjoying a cigar in lounge chairs. As Jane and I were doing our own version of Aqua Aerobics, I said “This place would make a great setting for a sitcom.” We started coming up with characters that would live there and their descriptions. We were having a ball visualizing these people. Then one of us said, “It should be a book first!”. The main characters would be two sisters in their 70’s that were widows. So, sadly our husband had to die in the book before it even got started. We vowed when we left that we would start writing it.

When we got home, we each typed up story lines and emailed them back and forth to each other. There is a home down the street from me with a sign “Rainbow’s End” at their mailbox. I always loved that name and suggested our community be called “Rainbow’s End”. Then we had to figure out how we would put the authors name. Jane McCoy and Brenda Rowell? Jane and Brenda? Then we came up with JB Bonds. It just seemed perfect!

We started thinking about all the funny things that had happened to Jane and I when we went on “girls trips” thru the years and decided they would make great stories in our book. Of course, we changed the names to protect the innocent.

Jane typed up all the story lines into a story and emailed them to me. I would edit and add a few ideas and before we knew it, “Rainbow’s End” was completed. One of my friends knew we were writing a book and suggested we go to the South Carolina Writers Workshop in Myrtle Beach in Oct. of 2012. It just so happened that My husband, Chuck and I own a condo in Myrtle Beach and we were going to be there in Oct. Jane and her husband, Jim came to spend a week so Jane and I could go to the Workshop.

Going to the South Carolina Writers Workshop was the best thing we ever did. We signed up for all the sessions we thought sounded interesting for the two days. We met Authors, Publishers, Editors, and Website Designers. We learned so much it was well worth every penny it cost. We found our website Designer, Shari Stauch with Writers Win and Editor, Toni Rakestraw. Once we got home we started searching for artwork of Key West, Fl and found “April on Retro Canal” by Frank Strasser. It was perfect! Jane found someone to design the book cover and we were ready to go. Our editor uploaded “Rainbow’s End” on Kindle and Amazon Paperback for us in Oct. of 2013.

I am now doing eight, one hour conference calls with Shari with Writers Win on Social Media Marketing. Both Jane and I love the process of writing our book and are on the sequel to “Rainbow’s End” called “Pelican Key”. We never in a million years would ever dream that we would have written and self published a book at ages 63 and 65.

Willard Scott seems to be very busy announcing all the 100 year old birthdays. Being 64, I am very interested in just how these people are living to be 100+. There seems to be more and more all the time and they are spry as ever.

I found an article in the Real Simple Magazine titled “Live Long and Prosper” by Sally Wadyka that gave seven surprising and doable ways to maintain your health and happiness as you get older. She also interviewed 7 centenarians and asked them what their advice was to live-longer.

I have my own list of what I think the key to living a longer and healthier life is for all the Baby Boomers that are Senior Citizens.

1. Maintain a positive outlook in life. Like my great aunt who is 89 says “I don’t have time to be around depressing people”. She is the most positive person I know. She has the best attitude. She is always happy and nothing bothers her.

2. Have lots of good friends and see them often. I think it is so important to be with people that you enjoy every day. My girlfriends, including my sister and daughters always make me smile.

3. Eat a well balanced diet. If you go on a diet, you will eventually go off of the diet. Just eat everything in moderation. Lots of vegetables and fruits. Eat what God gave us. Although I eat good, I still take Fish Oil, B-complex, Vitamin C every day and drink a lot of water..

4. Exercise in moderation. I don’t go out and join a club and pay lots of money to use their equipment. I just park further away from the store to get in more walking, do yoga at home, do some gentle stretching, do anything that gets me moving and breathing.

5. Keep your mind busy. I play bridge and mahjongg as often as I can. I read a lot of books and self-published my first book at age 63. I bought a piano and hope to find someone to give me lessons. I am also trying to learn Spanish but not doing too good at that.

I think I will add to my list Sally’s number 1 way to maintain your health and happiness as you get older: Bake a pie. Plant some flowers. (I won’t add the optional Triathlon training.) I also like one of the centenarians advice of having a drink of Scotch every day except I would make it wine. Sounds good to me.

What is your advice to living a longer and healthier life? Please share them with us by leaving a comment to this post.

What an easy list to follow and the benefits are stupendous!It’s refreshing to find a list of any kind, since I am 66 now, that is easy and enjoyable to follow.Not to mention the positive benefits garnered from ingesting these foods.Being technologically savvy is a big help because I can go to the computer and find recipes using all of these super foods that are simple and easy to make.I do worry about those seniors who are on fixed budgets, however.Some of these foods are pricey.Wouldn’t it be wonderful if there was an aisle devoted strictly to the senior diet in grocery stores, and the prices for these products were in line with our budgets?!This is too much to ask for, but certainly something that would be very beneficial for the majority of seniors in retirement, not to mention the health benefits they would receive.

I’ve decided to print up this list of 16 super foods and post them in my kitchen.If I can fix at least one meal a day with a couple of these foods in the menu, I will feel like I’m doing something positive for myself and my body.Who knows maybe I will be able to stop taking my blood pressure medicine and my cholesterol lowering drug.That alone would certainly pay for a cart load of these foods.

I would love to share some recipes with other seniors using some of these products, things that are tasty and creative.Anyone reading this have any suggestions?

In 2010, Census counted 42.3 million Americans 65 or older. From 2010 to 2060, the number will more than double to 92 million. Seniors are tending to stay in their own towns instead of moving to places like Arizona or Florida. Seniors are aging in place. What are the communities doing to prepare for this wave of Seniors? I am a Baby Boomer and a senior. I plan to stay right where I am until they carry me away. I found this article in the USA today about the 5 must-do’s as the age wave bears down on the USA. If you are getting ready to retire, what are your plans? Are you moving to Arizona or Florida? Or are you staying in your home town? What is your community doing to prepare for the Seniors? Read this article and see if you think your community is ready.

We are proud to announce the publication of our first book “Rainbow’s End”. It is now available on Kindle and Smashwords. It will soon be available in paper back with Amazon.com. We will keep you posted. Thanks to everyone for all of your support. This has been a fantastic adventure!